This invention relates to an agricultural work vehicle having an extensible and articulate load supportive frame which is particularly adapted to single-handed operations.
In certain general purpose agricultural applications, notably when performing field work from tillage to harvest in wide area, open plain farms, it is known to use tractors and other agricultural work vehicles having adjustable frames from which implements are suspended. Agricultural vehicles of this kind are often equipped with omnidirectional wheels that provide improved mobility in the field. Increasing the wheel base dimension improves ground following ability when working a field and thereby improves work quality and saves time which, in large-scale farming operations, can be substantial.
A corollary to such time saving is the further time that can be saved in those applications where individual farm fields are not conveniently adjacent to one another but are, instead, widely spaced apart and are reached along narrow secondary roads. Speed of manipulating implements, particularly in one-man operations, together with the ability to quickly transport the vehicle from one field to another result in further time savings to improve farming efficiency. In this regard, omnidirectional wheels facilitate broadside farming operations and endwise road transportation of the vehicle and its implements.
A further benefit to be obtained from vehicles having adjustable frames to provide a long wheel base is reduced compaction of soils with lessened inhibition of crop production. In order to maximize production output, permanent earth berms are provided along which the vehicle runs. In those instances where berm spacings may vary from field to field, adjustment of the frame to alter the wheel base will maintain the wheels on the berms so as to avoid extra soil compaction and crop damage.
The advantages afforded by the simple structural features of an adjustable frame and complete wheel control may, moreover, be enhanced when such features are embodied in an agricultural work vehicle with certain other attributes not necessarily found in apparatus of the prior art. In particular, reference is made to cost effectiveness in manufacture and use, simplicity of design, convenient single-handed operation and vehicle durability.